"The True Vine", 16" x 20", colored pencils.

Jesus is quoted as saying, in the gospel of John, “I am the true vine” (John 15:1) and “I am the vine, you are the branches” (John 15:5). In this He was referring to those who believe and follow Him.

The branches of a vine can not live of themselves. They receive water, sustenance, nourishment, very life from the vine. When the connection to the vine is whole and healthy, it lives with this life flowing into it.

Jesus also said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). That, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). The Grace of God in Christ is much abounding in this joy and sustaining of life at the core of ones being.

Unlike a vine in the natural world, where the branches can be maimed, broken, or even severed, once we are truly His we abide in true life which He holds secure now and forever. As He said, “neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:28). Jesus went so far as to say that “for without Me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5). This is a frank assertion that we can not achieve or merit Heaven , or continued growth in Christ, in our own striving efforts - that God’s grace is a free gift given. That in our flesh nothing good dwells, true overcoming life is bound and finds its source in Him. The closer we walk with Him, we also find that we would have it no other way, for to somehow do anything without Him would be emptiness.

We rejoice in life. Life of healing, life of the deepest innermost longings and yearnings filled beyond anything we could imagine, abiding in the True Vine.